Hearings on the case of Anar Mammadov - head of the Election Monitoring and democratic Studies Centre (EMDSC), as well as the executive director of this NGO – Bashir Suleymanli, and the head of the Public Association for International Cooperation of Volunteers (PAICV) Elnur Mammadov took place in the Baku Serious Crimes Court.
All of them are charged under five articles of the Criminal Code 5 - tax evasion, illegal business, abuse of office, embezzlement on a large scale and official forgery.
A lawsuit was filed at the end of October 2013. On December 17 Mamedli was taken into custody, and two others were ordered not to leave the country.
Prosecutor Anar Tariverdiev read the indictment, and then began hearing testimonies of persons recognized by investigation as victims. However, they all said they did not consider themselves victims, and have no claims against the defendants.
The four said that thanks to the projects of the EMDSC they earned money.
The witnesses rejected the version of investigators that project managers pay them less than they noted in the documentation. Witnesses also showed that the investigation interrogated them as witnesses, but against their will, they were recognized as victims.
Sahib Rustamli from Sabirabad region said that he was a coordinator of the EMDSC project at the elections since 2010. He was involved in organizing the monitoring, training observers, surveys. He was paid travel expenses, costs for using a mobile phone and the Internet.
He always got the sum he was promised in advance, and did not have any claim.
Activists from Goychay region gave similar testimonies - Elshan Suleymanov and Nahid Ismailov -from Baku.
Photojournalist from Turan agency, Etimad Budagov, who was also recognized by the investigation as a victim, denied claims of the investigation, and said he had not any claims.
The journalist said he was shocked when he learned that he was called a victim, because the law enforcement agencies have never recognized facts of violation of his rights, despite numerous complaints and appeals.
The court caused the increased attention from the public and the hearing took place in a crowded room. The hearing was also attended by representatives of the embassies of the USA, Germany, UK, Norway and the EU. The next meeting is scheduled for 5 May.—06C-
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